African Scholars

The African Scholars Program at Amherst Regional High School will present an African Dinner and Film Night on Thursday, March 15, at 5:30 p.m. in the high school library and cafeteria.  The program is a benefit for the group’s planned student exchange in West Africa.

Chicken Yassa

The evening will include a sumptuous home-made meal using authentic West African recipes and a free screening and follow-up discussion of Senegalese filmmaker Sembene Ousmane’s Mandabi, the story of a man with a money order he can’t cash because he has no identity in the postcolonial bureaucracy.

The menu will offer a choice of entrees, vegetarian mafe or chicken yassa, with white rice.  Beverages will include bouye and bissap (made from baobab and hibiscus, respectively) as well as ataya, a special tea brewed and poured with great fanfare.  The principal chefs will be African Studies Program directors Oumy Cisse-Deme, a French teacher and naïve of Senegal, and Momodou Sarr, a special education teacher and native of The Gambia.

The goals of the African Scholars Program are to infuse African studies into all parts of the high school curriculum and to establish an ongoing exchange program with secondary schools in Senegal and the Gambia. The group’s fundraising activities will support students who cannot afford the full cost of the exchange as well community service projects in Africa.

The event is open to the community, but seating is limited and reservations are required.  Tickets are $15 for adults and $8 for students; preferred seating and a souvenir mug are available with an additional $10 contribution. Tickets can be reserved by e-mailing Bruce Penniman at penniman@english.umass.edu or by calling 413-253-2669.

The last chapter of the novel relates the story of a mermaid caught by a fisherman. Like the novel, the story has multiple outcomes. In your response, please discuss the themes of the mermaid story and show how they connect to specific events in Ayodele’s life. Use quotes if possible. This posting is due by Sunday, January 29.

I wrote these two poems thinking about my trip to Africa last year. I thought that I would share them as we approach our trip date.

> The night, the night
> The Senegal night.
> The cool ocean breezes
> The dimly lit light
> Forth floor apartment
> Overlooking Yoff
> Drums in the background
> Rhythm of life
> Filling my senses
> With adventure and delight
>
>
>
> The long road to The Gambia
> So dusty so yellow
> Bumpity bump it’s making me mellow
> The road is so pitted, so broken and so
> We snake, back and forth,
> As to rock and to roll
> Dust in my hair, in my heart and my soul
> The sun so hot; I sweat, I drip
> What a grand expedition is this African trip

Hello, African Scholars,

Since the class Moodle doesn’t seem to be operational yet, please use this blog site to post your comments on Reading the Ceiling, Prologue and Part One.  Please reflect on and connect with the novel.  The main character is close to your age.  What do you have in common with her?  In what ways is her life quite different from yours?  How do her thoughts compare with your thoughts?  Her potential futures with yours?  The original assignment sheet, which has more suggestions, is attached here: Reading the Ceiling Assignments 2.  Your first comment is due now, and the second, on Parts Two and Three, on January 29.

The African Scholar’s Committee (left to right, Kathy Wilkes, Maria Geryck, Momodou Sarr, Bruce Penniman and Oumy Cisse) met with Maria Geryck, superintendent of the Amherst School District, in September.  We presented our proposal and trip itinerary for our exchange in April ’12, to Senegal and The Gambia.   She was very positive about our ideas and gave us the “go ahead” to proceed with the exchange.

At this point we have met with a number of parents and are collecting student applications for the exchange program.  We will also be organizing fundraisers to help students with the costs of the trip.

Today, May 29th is mother’s day in Senegal. Like in France and in the Francophone world, Mother’s day takes place the last sunday of the month of May. How is it celebrated here? People buy small gifts, coock special meals, get flowers to thank and honor their mothers. Students in elementary schools write poems and songs for their moms. Songs honoring mothers are heard on the radio all day long. It is a very special day for all mothers.